


There’s This Thing Called A Holodeck

by Bakageta



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Body Horror, Gen, Hallucinations, Other, Visual Hallucinations, all sorts of hallucinations really, and agreed to by Eddie, auditory hallucinations, caused purposefully by Venom, they're just trying to make it through the rainy winter days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:48:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bakageta/pseuds/Bakageta
Summary: “When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was Star Trek, and in Star Trek there’s this thing called a holodeck.” Eddie paused to gauge Venom’s interest and found all of it focused on him and his half recalled memories. It was slightly intimidating, but he continued, “I never really got how it was supposed to work--and I don’t think half the writers did either--but basically the holodeck could take the characters anywhere without them leaving the ship.“It’d be pretty cool if we could do that don’t you think?"------Venom tests out some theories, Eddie wishes it would just stop raining already, and they both deserve a vacation.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 16
Kudos: 101





	There’s This Thing Called A Holodeck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [merelypassingtime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/gifts).



> Inspired by a [post](https://merelypassingtime.tumblr.com/post/614339684558143488/so-that-scene-where-eddie-looks-in-the-car-window) merelypassingtime made on their tumblr, I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Thanks to [sajastar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sajastar/pseuds/sajastar) for betaing!
> 
> This fills the square for 'Hallucinations/Visions' on my [card](https://bakageta.dreamwidth.org/288.html).

Aside from the increasingly urgent hunger, the first sign Eddie had that Venom hadn’t died was their translucent reflection superimposed over his own in the bathroom mirror.

Venom had faded in when he was halfway through shaving, a quiet presence in the back of his mind and a shadow over his face. Their eyes were aligned with his and the shape of their teeth along his jaw made it difficult for him to tell exactly where he’d already shaved. Eddie ended up cutting his cheek more than he normally would have as he continued to shave. By the time he finished Eddie could just feel the edge of their exasperation at the back of his mind.

“Don’t worry about it,” He said as he thought deliberately of the first few times he’d tried to shave his patchy teenage facial hair, “I’ve done much worse and lived to tell the tale.”

The tiny bit of them that Eddie had felt reaching out relaxed and retreated back into his chest, resigned and sleepy. Now that he knew they were there, Eddie could feel them under the hunger, a slight hitch just beneath his right clavicle. They’d spent all of their energy reaching out to him, and now that Eddie had noticed them, Venom sunk into torpor.

Venom’s reflection remained over Eddie’s like a twice exposed photo for a few more minutes before fading, and he smiled for the first time since the rocket as he stuck bits of toilet paper to the nicks on his cheek.

* * *

“Can you get off of my face?” Eddie asked, deeply aware of the strange flexing along his neck and jaw as he felt Venom shift where they’d webbed through his shaggy facial hair. It was getting to that awkward state in between stubble and beard and was just long enough to mostly cover the strands of alien goo.

 **Hmmm** , Venom feigned indecision momentarily, **no**.

“Venom, I need to shave.”

 **No, you do not**.

“Yes, I do.” Eddie still felt self-conscious talking to Venom out loud even in his own bathroom. Their attempts to converse mentally hadn’t worked out well so far. Eddie’s thoughts were too jumbled for Venom to separate intentional communication from idle observations. The symbiote usually ended up mentally worn out and Eddie ended up with a headache.

 **You do not** , Venom insisted and engulfed Eddie’s reflection with their own.

Reflexively, Eddie’s hands jerked to his face at their sudden appearance before he realized that they’d only altered the view in the mirror and not his head. It distracted him enough that he forgot about shaving.

“How’d you do that?” He patted at his hairy cheeks, feeling the familiar shape of his face. There was something dissociative about watching Venom-in-the-mirror copy his flighty movements.

 **Easily** , Venom responded, the movement of their reflection suddenly divorced from Eddie’s. He found himself twitching along with half started motions as they continued speaking. **For a creature so dependent on sight, your visual cortex is shockingly easy to hijack. Almost as easy as your hearing**.

“You’re making me hallucinate? Why?”

 **The first time** , Venom recalled the rush of Eddie’s fear and his jittery tapping at a car window, **it was to enforce my presence and existence in you without risking myself. Now it is because we do not need to shave**.

“Why don’t we?” Eddie sighed after taking a moment to process how weird his life had become.

 **We like the texture**. He felt the lines of them shift against his skin even if he couldn’t see it. The sensation was nice, like dozens of fingers running through his facial hair.

“Yeah, we do, but _I_ don’t like cleaning food out of my beard. What if I just don’t shave super closely?”

 **But we could save food for later**.

“Absolutely not.”

* * *

“Is it just sight and sound you can make me hallucinate?” Eddie wondered idly as he attempted to find reasons to stay in bed. It was the weekend and he didn’t really have anything to do, but he could only justify staying in bed to Venom for so long.

 **It is possible that I could do more**. Venom stopped trying to inch Eddie sideways off the bed and onto the floor. **I have never tried**.

“Do you want to?”

 **Yes, but why do you**? Venom asked, suspicious but interested.

“When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was Star Trek, and in Star Trek there’s this thing called a holodeck.” Eddie paused to gauge Venom’s interest and found all of it focused on him and his half recalled memories. It was slightly intimidating, but he continued, “I never really got how it was supposed to work--and I don’t think half the writers did either--but basically the holodeck could take the characters anywhere without them leaving the ship.

“It’d be pretty cool if we could do that don’t you think? We could go anywhere from the comfort of my bed.”

 **That should technically work** … Venom trailed off into thought too complicated for Eddie to follow, eventually coming to an abrupt conclusion.

 **Get out of bed, loser, we can practice after we eat**.

* * *

“Do you want to try a tropical island?” Eddie asked a week later as he stared at the dismal grey weather outside his apartment. It was nice during the summer, but San Francisco in the winter was four solid months of cold, wet misery. Usually he managed just fine, but with Venom’s restlessness piled on top of his own, Eddie was sick of it.

 **Neither of us has ever been to a tropical island** , Venom reminded him. **We have nothing to work from**.

The practicing they’d done over the last week had revealed that, yes, Venom could easily manipulate all of Eddie’s senses. Their ‘holodeck’ worked best when both Venom and Eddie had been to whatever place the symbiote was making their host hallucinate. Venom could also take Eddie to any of the hundreds of planets they’d been to, but their impressions of a location never quite matched what Eddie’s human senses expected. The few places they’d shown him had been off, the scents too defined and the sights too flat. 

“Yeah, but I’ve been to Florida and you can’t tell me there aren’t any beaches in space. How different could it be?” Eddie shrugged and settled himself on to his bed.

 **Incredibly different** , Venom said dryly, but Eddie could feel the shift in his mind as they reached for his memories of the Sunshine State.

“Can’t hurt to try.” Eddie stretched and Venom pooled over him, making themselves comfortable.

 **I want chocolate after this** , they said, and then pulled Eddie under before he could respond.

Everything was dark and detached before Eddie heard the sounds of waves against sand, calling gulls, and, briefly, the noise of a distant city before it was replaced by wind in trees. Then, there was the texture of soft sand under his feet. The breeze that he’d heard brushed along his face and tugged at clothes he felt settle over his body. The sun was warm on his skin, and the air was salty on his tongue and in his nose.

 **Open your eyes**.

It was perfect.

To Eddie’s right was a thick, impenetrable jungle studded with broad leafed palm trees and strange, dark grasses just as tall. The ocean to his left lapped placidly against the shore and shaded from white foam to clear blue waves and opaque depths. Pale sand ran endlessly ahead of him and huge, cotton-soft clouds perched on the horizon under a sky that was slightly too teal to be Earthly, and a white sun shone over everything.

“This is so much better than our apartment.”

 **Of course it is. We deserve cake when we’re done**.

“Definitely, but I gotta ask: what’s with the clothes?”

Instead of the shirt and sweatpants he’d laid down in, Eddie was wearing a white tank top patterned with bold yellow flowers that had been tucked into a pair of blue running shorts.

 **We want to feel breezy. Now start moving**.

Eddie rolled his eyes and started jogging along the beach.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! I'm on [tumblr](https://bakageta.tumblr.com/) if you want to say hello, and if you want to check out this fic over there you can find it [here](https://bakageta.tumblr.com/post/615420949554233344/so-that-scene-where-eddie-looks-in-the-car-window).


End file.
